Multi-modal and multi-length scale chemical tomography

Session

Correlative and Multimodal X-ray Microscopy

Authors

Dr Stephen Price (1)

Affiliations

1. Finden Ltd

Keywords

X-ray imaging, X-ray Diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, computed tomography

Abstract text

Active materials such as catalysts, and functional devices such as batteries, possess both chemical and physical structure across different length scales which can influence performance, but which is not always considered when correlating structure with function. Understanding how these materials behave and evolve during operation is important to further develop them, but a significant amount of testing still focuses on comparing materials before and after use, and is done by bulk characterisation methods, which are not sensitive to spatial variations or minor components.

X-ray microscopy based methods provide a means to interrogate these materials through a combination of spectroscopic (XRF, XANES), scattering (XRD) and tomographic methods. These methods, such as X-ray diffraction computed tomography (XRD-CT), can be collected individually, or simultaneously in a correlative, multimodal approach, and are typically performed at synchrotrons where the high X-ray energy and flux allow for the study of intact devices. The resultant chemical maps/tomograms obtained contain great detail on the nature and spatial distribution of active species within the sample and can do so under process conditions in a non-destructive manner.

Developments in data processing enable the reconstructed data to be viewed in near real-time, while advances in data analysis greatly increase the rate at which the (often very large) datasets can be interpreted. This talk will show how such methods have been applied to understanding the behaviour of a number of systems, including catalysts and energy materials. Crucially, we demonstrate that the obtained chemical and physical information can be correlated to performance.